CNN — High above Earth, a cutting-edge satellite is zooming around the planet 15 times a day. It is hunting for leaks of methane — an invisible, super-polluting gas that is dramatically warming the planet.Its measurements are precise enough to plot heatmaps of the biggest offenders, lighting up all the places they are venting the gas into the atmosphere at a staggering rate, unbeknownst to regulators, as the planet careens toward what scientists warn could be irreversible climate change impacts.MethaneSAT’s early findings are that the oil and gas industry is belching the gas at a rate three to five times higher on average than what the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated, and way beyond the rate the industry itself agreed to in 2023.The Permian Basin, one of the most productive oil and gas basins in the world, is leaking methane to the tune of 9 to 14.5 times the limit the industry agreed to — nearly 640,000 pounds per hour. The Appalachia Basin is leaking at four times the industry-set rate.And in Utah’s Uinta Basin, the leak rate is an astonishing 45 times the industry-set limit. Although it’s leaking less overall than the Permian Basin, for example, it’s an older basin — with older, leaky equipment — that’s producing far less oil and gas.